After watching the previous iteration of Gintama I was beginning to get a bit tired of how hit and miss this series could be. I think that with Gintama’ Enchousen I might have seen the best and most consistent series to date.

I managed to watch all 13 episodes of this on a recent work trip to Wales where I spent two nights in a hotel with weirdly limited wi-fi. By limited I mean that I had to lay in front of the door to the hotel room in order to get a strong enough signal for Crunchyroll to work. So, this was watched in a makeshift nest of pillows and extra blankets. On the floor. Because I am an adult.

Within Gintama’ Enchousen there are three arcs and one standalone episode. The second arc, known as the Courtesan of a Nation arc, was one of the best that I have seen from the franchise so far. Is it because it heavily features Tsukuyo (my favourite side-character) in a serious story about promises and toppling the patriarchy that ended up making me cry? Yes, yes it is.

The thing is, there is no way that you can watch Gintama’ Enchousen without seeing any of the previous seasons. The first arc is extremely meta and only works if you know the characters really well. However, this is a show that’s big enough and far enough in that it doesn’t really need to use a season opener to introduce new viewers.

I say this, but Gintama’ Enchousen actually included some remastered episodes from the previous that could have provided some sort of introduction… but I didn’t see the point of watching repeats when I have so many great animescalling my name.